1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording process adapted to conduct recording with an ink set comprising in combination two liquids of different compositions, and various apparatus and members, for example, a recording apparatus and an ink set, necessary for the recording process. Namely, this invention relates to an invention in which the epochal properties of a liquid composition, which have not been predictable to date, are applied rationally and synthetically to an image-forming system, and more particularly to a liquid composition, such as an ink, to be used in a field of recording with ink, and an image-forming process and apparatus, composite system, printing system, sales system and the like using such a liquid composition, or a printer, facsimile terminal equipment, communication system, display/exhibition system and the like using the same.
The present invention also relates to an invention extremely effective for an ink-jet system using a system that an ink is ejected on a recording medium such as paper or paper for over-head projector (OHP).
2. Related Background Art
As image formation by recording with ink, there have heretofore been mainly known image formation by contact-type inking, in which an ink supply means is brought into contact with a desired portion of a recording medium to form an image on this portion, and image formation by noncontact-type inking, in which an ink is applied to a desired portion of a recording medium in a state that an ink supply means is in no contact with the recording medium, thereby forming an image. In particular, the latter image-forming process has come to be often used as an ink-jet system in recent years. This ink-jet system is roughly divided into a bubble ink-jet system making good use of thermal energy for the ejection of ink and a piezoelectric system making good use of mechanical change.
In general, inks used in these systems have been improved compositionally from a view point of the purpose of recording bright images on a recording medium such as paper or paper for OHP or of stabilizing their ejection state from an ink-jet head and their behavior in the head. With the application of the ink-jet systems to a wide variety of fields in recent years, high level of various demands have come to be made even on the performance of ink. Techniques for these improvements are also going to develop more highly. However, many of inks for ink-jet maintain their ink-jet properties by delicately balancing their various physical properties with one another. Therefore, when an improvement of a desired property is attempted, other properties may be often deteriorated. In such a case, the degree of improvement in the desired property is limited so that the degree of deterioration of the properties to be deteriorated may not become a problem from the viewpoint of practical use. As described above, improvements in ink-jet ink itself have both merits and demerits.
Various attempts have therefore been made to achieve good recording characteristics without more highly modifying the physical properties themselves of ink. For example, there has been proposed a technique for insolubilizing a coloring material in an ink on a recording medium with a view toward enhancing the water fastness of the resulting image.
Specifically, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-60783 discloses a method in which after a liquid containing a basic polymer is applied to a recording medium, an ink containing an anionic dye is applied thereto, thereby conducting recording. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-22681 discloses a recording method in which a first liquid containing a reactive chemical species and a second liquid containing a compound reacting with the reactive chemical species are mixed on a recording medium. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-299971 discloses a method in which a liquid containing an organic compound having two or more cationic groups per molecule is applied to a recording medium, and recording is then conducted with inks containing an anionic dye. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 64-9279 discloses a method in which after an acidic liquid containing succinic acid is applied to a recording medium, an ink containing an anionic dye is applied thereto, thereby conducting recording.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 64-63185 discloses a method of applying a liquid (insolubilizing agent), which insolubilizes a dye, to a recording medium prior to application of ink. As a method of using this insolubilizing agent, EP-A-663299 to the present applicant discloses an image-recording method capable of forming high-quality images, in which a recording ink is used in combination with a liquid composition containing a cationic or nonionic substance as an insolubilizing agent.